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Name HYONG WOO CHOI Date18-01-26 07:17 View5,674 Comment2

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Hi, Allan! In Module 4 you explained about Mechanical and Meaningful practice and in 1b there was something that I wasn't able to understand perfectly.
(Say true sentences about yourself: I like tea pr I don't like tea. What about: a) coffee? b) pop music? c) cats?)
I thought that 1b is a meaningful practice but you said that you can't really know, for example, if he/she likes tea so when I want to make students practice structures in a meaningful way, does it become mechanical practice if I make them say true or real things about themselves? I also thought that a single word prompt and a picture prompt is a meaningful practice but most of the single word prompts examples you explained were Mechanical practice so I would appreciate if you answer me about those things in more detail! Thank you!

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Allan Scafe님의 댓글

Allan Scafe 쪽지보내기 메일보내기 자기소개 아이디로 검색 전체게시물 Date

HI Hyong Woo Choi,

Yeah, honestly it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between a meaningful form of practice and a mechanical form of practice.  The activity where students had to "say a true sentence about themselves" in 1b, I agree it is hard to see why it is mechanical.  It looks meaningful, because students should say true sentences about themselves (I like/dislike/don't like coffee/pop music/cats/etc", but it is actually mechanical.  Why?  Well it is mechanical, because if we gave the students a word like "thermodynamics", and then students said, "I like thermodynamics", we  don't actually know whether they are actually telling the truth or not, because we could guess that they don't actually know what "thermodynamics" even means.  If someone told me to tell the truth, and asked me whether I like or dislike "belisimo" (I just made the word up), I could still answer, even though I don't know what "belisimo" means.  Therefore, because the exercise can be done without any real understanding, it is mechanical. 

Single word prompts and picture prompts can be mechanical, but they can also be meaningful, it just depends on the structure you are practicing and how you organize the SWPs or PPs activity.  Just remember: if the students can do the activity without actually understanding what they're saying, it is mechanical.  Also remember that an easy way to make an activity more meaningful, is by simply adding "why". 

Well, I hope that helps!  Have a wonderful day!

 
 
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